Ricci Scholars

The Ricci Scholars Program offers scholarship to highly qualified students who spend their junior year studying and conducting cross-cultural research at Loyola's John Felice Rome Center and the Beijing Center for Chinese Studies. Students prepare their research proposals and apply for this unique scholarship as sophomores, conduct field research and travel as juniors, and complete their projects as seniors.

Launched in the fall of 2007, the Ricci Scholarship program is supported by the generous gift of a donor to Loyola. The scholarship covers round-trip travel, language tutorials, program seminars, research expenses, and study travel. Unlike other international experiences, the Ricci program allows students to engage in two cultures within the span of nine months—Western European culture in Rome and Eastern Asian culture in Beijing—and challenges them to integrate these experiences with a third culture, that of the United States. This triple cultural immersion, achieved through a coordinated effort linking Chicago, Rome, and Beijing, is currently unparalleled by any other study abroad program and brings together the cultures of East and West in an educational context that reflects the complexities and opportunities of the 21st century.